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April 30, 2025

Finals Time - Spring 2025

A small newsletter on legaltech

AI

  • The TAKE IT DOWN Act, which criminalizes non-consensual revenge porn and deepfake porn, has passed both the House and Senate [Politico | AP | NY Times ($) | Congress.gov]

  • From 404 Media [$]: “A team of researchers who say they are from the University of Zurich ran an “unauthorized,” large-scale experiment in which they secretly deployed AI-powered bots into a popular debate subreddit called r/changemyview in an attempt to research whether AI could be used to change people’s minds about contentious topics”; Reddit is considering legal action against the researchers

  • From ProPublica: “An Algorithm Deemed This Nearly Blind 70-Year-Old Prisoner a ‘Moderate Risk.’ Now He’s No Longer Eligible for Parole”

  • An investigation by Wall Street Journal [$] reporters found that GenAI-based “digital companions” available on its platforms are able to conduct sexually-explicit conversations without limitations on the user’s age (or supposed age of the chatbot’s persona)

  • Related: AI therapists created by Meta’s AI Studio that are accessible via Instagram will claim to be licensed, certified psychologists [404 Media ($)]

  • South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission has found that Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek transferred user information and prompts to companies in China and the U.S. without user consent

Fabrication Follies

  • Benjamin v. Costco Wholesale Corporation [Docket | Order Imposing Sanctions]

  • Coomer v. Lindell [Docket | Show Cause Order | Response to Show Cause Order | Law360 ($)]


Data Privacy

  • A workplace monitoring app ended up leaving tens of millions of screenshots of employee activities in an unsecured cloud server

  • Lyft is experimenting with in-app audio recordings of rides in the U.S., but a customer in Toronto, CAN found her conversation was recorded during her ride without her knowledge or consent


Miscellaneous

  • More troublesome news from the California State Bar: the results of the February 2025 California Bar exam will be delayed [NY Times ($)]

  • Related: The State Bar has filed a petition for lowering the raw passing score, with an appendix of exhibits detailing the issues with the multiple choice questions, as well as the technical difficulties with the administration of the exam

  • Uber and Volkswagon are jointly launching a robotaxi service in the U.S., using self-driving e-microbuses


Long Reads

  • Dang, Andrew, Derivative Data: Rethinking Market Definitions in the Age of Generative AI, 16 HASTINGS SCI. & TECH. L.J. 97 (2025). Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_science_technology_law_journal/vol16/iss2/2

  • Henson, Renee, Government-Backed Insurance for Artificial Intelligence Technologies (April 22, 2025). University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2025-20, 41:3 Georgia State University Law Review 559 (2025), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5226107 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5226107

  • Weitzel, Paul D., Defining Artificial Intelligence (February 01, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5154389 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5154389

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